U.S. Toll Goes Up at Bridge to Canada

The first stage of an 86 percent increase in toll rates for trucks went into effect Tuesday on the U.S. side of the Blue Water Bridge, the third busiest U.S. international commercial land crossing. The second stage is slated for April 1.

The toll was raised Tuesday from $1.75 per axle to $2.50, and will rise again on April 1 to $3.25 per axle, at the crossing between Port Huron, Michigan, and Point Edward, Ontario. The $3.25 brings U.S. commercial tolls equal to those charged by Canada — $3.25 in either U.S. or Canadian funds. For cars, the U.S. toll rate was doubled on Tuesday from $1.50 per car to $3.00.

The Michigan Department of Transportation had intended to raise the toll to $3.25 all at once but decided to phase it in because "the trucking industry let us know that our original proposal ... was too steep for their current contracts to handle," Michael Szuch, U.S. Blue Water Bridge manager, said.

The first toll increase since 1997 is essentially accepted as inevitable by truckers but they wanted more time. At public hearings on the increase in December, in Lansing, Mich., no U.S. or Canadian trucking concerns came to make a case, except for David Bradley, president of both the Ontario Trucking Association and the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

Bradley says now that the two-stage increase "is short of the delay in implementation we requested ... (but) ... will provide carriers with some relief and ability to pass the increased toll costs along."

Michigan DOT will consider establishing toll discounts for carriers using automated pre-paid accounts, Bradley said. Blue Water Bridge Canada reduces its $3.25 per axle to $3.00 for those using such accounts.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reported recently that the Blue Water Bridge is the third-busiest commercial land crossing for the United States, after the crossings at Detroit, Mich., and Laredo, Texas. DOT said U.S. merchandise trade by value going and coming over the bridge totaled $82 billion in 2008 (full 2009 figures are not yet in). That was 10 percent of the total value of all U.S. land trade, on both borders. Up to 6,000 trucks cross the bridge on a busy day, along with 14,000 other vehicles.

The Michigan DOT says the toll increases will earn $8 to $10 million a year and go toward maintenance and new expenditures such as $90 million for re-decking the U.S. side of the two spans and $583 million for a large plaza expansion.

Contact Courtney Tower at ctower@sympatico.ca.